From her home in north Berkeley where she lives with her filmmaker husband Steven Okazaki and 7-year-old daughter Daisy, Peggy Orenstein has been opining for years for the New York Times magazine about the world of girls and feminism. Last week, her latest book, Cinderella Ate My Daughter, was published and it is already climbing the bestseller list. (It will debut at #13 on the New York Times list Feb. 13) The book is both an expose of and meditation about the corporate push to market princesses and pink and early sexuality to young girls.

Berkeley author Ayelet Waldman has come up with a clever, not to mention generous, idea to help send a disadvantaged Oakland student to college through the Scholar Match program, established by her fellow writer and friend Dave Eggers.

At Berkeleyside we feel quite proprietorial about having self-described “bad mother” Ayelet Waldman in our midst. Waldman, who lives in Berkeley, has made a career out of exposing the fallibilities of motherhood which, in fact, are common to all women who give birth.

While Kate, the owner of Cupkates, Berkeley’s popular cupcakes truck, tries to resolve her permit issues with the city, those of you missing the taste of her red velvets and pumpkin flavored treats should know that she is still selling them from the truck (check her Twitter updates for details) and Cupkates are available at Modern Coffee at 13th and Broadway in Oakland.